B's Stretch Division Lead with 5-2 Win

BOSTON, MA – Finally, a little bit of distance between the Boston Bruins and the Ottawa Senators.

After winning four of the last five games, including last night’s 5-2 victory against the Tampa Bay Lightning, the Bruins (45-28-3, 93 points) have five-point lead over the Sens in the Northeast division.

“It’s really big,” Boston Bruins forward Brad Marchand said after last night’s win. “We weren’t playing our best the past little while, and we seemed to have turned it around at the right time. You want to play your best hockey going into the playoffs, you just can’t flip a switch and turn it on and start to play well. We’re doing a good job at responding right now.”

Since losing four straight games prior to winning four out of the last five, the Bruins seemed to have gotten back to their style of play night in and night out.

For Boston Bruins forward Shawn Thornton, that’s more important than any number of streak.

“I think we’ve been more consistent of late, and that’s all that really matters,” Thornton said. “There’s a streak, no streak, whatever. We played a good game [Tuesday]. Don’t get too high, focus on Washington [Capitals] on Thursday after this.”

Most of the guys in the locker room have openly said that they’re happy with the way they’re playing as of late. But with just six games left in the regular season, they also said there’s no room to get complacent.

"There’s always room to improve and get better," B's captain Zdeno Chara said. "We can’t be just sitting on three wins now and be happy about it."

But if there is one outright positive factor to take from the Bruins last five games, it’s that they’ve been able to play hard for a full 60 minutes and hold a lead – something that wasn’t so easy a week ago.

“We’re playing well going into the third and that’s important and I think we’ve been tied or leading by one goal going into the third,” Bruins forward Rich Peverley said. “So I think [Tuesday], we did a good job of cementing our lead.”